The One Thing Small Businesses Need to STOP Doing

Are you an author, coach, restaurant, or other small business?  Listen up.  I need to tell you something.

Stop Using Facebook as Your Website!

I’ve written about it before. The dangers of using Facebook as your business website.  Sadly instead of seeing a decrease in the number of businesses taking part in the practice, here we are a year later, with more small businesses than ever believing they can get away with using Facebook as their business website.

I’m sure many of the business owners who have elected to do so would argue that they are doing just fine relying on the free social media platform as their home on the web.  So why am I here, trying once again to explain why this is a really bad business practice.

Because it’s a really bad business practice and if you take your business seriously you shouldn’t do it. Period.

Why?  As I said, I’ve explained before, so this time let me ask you a question.

What would you tell a friend if they said they were going to build their dream house on a rented parcel of land?

Crazy right?  Why in the world would you build your valuable home on land someone else owns?  Why would you risk the possibility of the landowner taking possession of their land and doing what they wanted with it?

As crazy as it sounds, that’s exactly what you’re doing when you use a Facebook Page for your business rather than having your own website.

The thing is, you really have very little control over your own page on Facebook. You can’t upload anything you want, you have to abide by Facebook rules which may or may not benefit your business. There are a lot of limitations that you may not even be aware of when it comes to a Facebook page.

For example, not all of your followers will see you updates and events.  The Facebook algorithm decides who does and doesn’t see your information, so even if you have thousands of followers, a very small percentage may actually be seeing your stuff.

It’s also harder for someone who is searching for your business to find you. If you knew how often people have failed to find your business when they did a web search because you’re only on Facebook might just make you rethink your so-called ‘free’ alternative to a website.  Like many free things, it’s likely costing you business.

Social media platforms like Facebook are a great idea to market your business and I encourage clients to use it for connecting with their customers, clients and chosen market.  I also stress that it’s not a website replacement.  Do your business a favor, get a real website and use Facebook for what it’s best at.  Getting social.